YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#821

Post by timbit42 » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:35 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #629

The thing with adverts on mobile, where the ad block hasn't worked for ages now, is I can always block them by putting the phone down for 20 seconds (or whatever length the advert is). Having to do this for an un-skippable 20 second ad for one minute video, however, makes me press the back button. That said, the new plays-even-if-you-can't-see-them ad-block-proof ads on desktop are annoying to the point I'm consideri…

You can install uBlock Origin on Firefox on Android.

You can also install NewPipe or NewPipe with SponsorBlock.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#822

Post by bigbillheck » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:35 PM UTC

SpaceNugget wrote: post #778

jamiequint wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be true on random-site-X on the internet, but is not true on sites like YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, etc that run their own first-party ad platforms.

I almost fell for a scam yesterday from an instagram ad. There was an ad for fun printed workout shorts for only €4. I added a couple different prints and was about to pay when I noticed the URL was neehd dot com and the site title was some other random word. I couldn't find any reference to either name online and went back to instagram. The VERY NEXT AD was for an identical site with a different random 5 letter url.…

One of the ways I solve that is to never buy anything that's been advertised to me (unless I have information about it from other channels).

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#823

Post by timbit42 » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:37 PM UTC

Quequau wrote: post #366

I am kind of on the fence about the content on YouTube being worth paying for but the website makes it so difficult to find the content that I am actually interested in seeing that it makes the whole experience absolutely not worth it to me to pay for. Faced with blocked videos I would either figure out a way around or do something else with my time. No way I'm disabling my ad blocker.

I use another search engine to find videos on YT. Sometimes YT search works but often it doesn't.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#824

Post by btbuildem » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:39 PM UTC

pb7 wrote: post #357

btbuildem wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because if you pay for premium, the ads will inevitably be back. It's a matter of time.

Do you have any examples of free services that added ads to their premium subscription?

Cable television, glossy magazines, mobile games - to name a few.

They relentlessly extract value from whatever they built to make profit, until there is no value left and they're back to selling their own customers.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#825

Post by ghodith » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

thiht wrote: post #650

Natsu wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also there's the fact that once enough people get on board with the ad free subscription services, they usually just start adding ads anyway.

I don’t know why you’re being downvoted, that’s true. I paid my Android TV $2000 and guess what? They added ads on the Home! Google sucks and there’s no way I’ll directly give them money, ever again.

This is just smart TV's in general. I have "The Frame" TV from Samsung and was super disappointed when I realized they put non-removable ads on the home page. Mostly from Disney+ which I don't even subscribe to. This is after I went through and spent an hour disabling their built-in autoplay cable-over-internet feature.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#826

Post by bluefirebrand » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:44 PM UTC

bilekas wrote: post #622

freehorse wrote: post #615

It is not just about youtube. The whole internet is bloated with ads right now, and the vast majority of them quite the opposite of discrete. I just cannot browse the internet without adblocker, it is too slow, but more importantly too distracting. I could count the times that I have found an internet ad interesting in my lifetime using half the fingers of one hand. Personalised or not, the vast majority is useless,…

> I believe it is my right to adjust my browsing experience by affecting how websites are rendered in my browser to a degree I find reasonable, as well as from my side what data tracking I allow, which is already a huge compromise for me (I would rather not allow js by default in most websites). Agree completely. I know people who are fine with watching ads to support the content creators and I agree. The creators sh…

> Agree completely. I know people who are fine with watching ads to support the content creators and I agree. The creators should be compensated but Google are far too agressive with their ads.

The part I dislike about this is that they will demonetize a video for content reasons, but still show ads on it.

I also don't know how it works with YouTube Premium. If I have Premium and I watch a creator, does YouTube pay them some tiny % of my subscription fee to offset the ads that I'm no longer watching?

I feel like that's not likely

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#827

Post by lisasays » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:57 PM UTC

HJain13 wrote: post #529

lisasays wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The content is not worth paying for because it's been designed from the ground up to sell ads. Some of it is, but the vast bulk of it clearly was not. You knew that of course. I'd strongly consider paying for YT if it were an independent company. But as a part of Google - fuck no.

> I'd strongly consider paying for YT if it were an independent company YT wouldn't be YT if it was an independent company. Lack of competition in the field is a proof

By this logic, Netflix shouldn't be Netflix (or in its current market position) either.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#828

Post by timbit42 » Thu, May 11, 2023, 1:59 PM UTC

monday_ wrote: post #527

The thing with the paid subscription is that the bastards still track you. Paying for the service does not exclude you from surveillance, it supposedly makes it less obtrusive. Ad-blocker is insufficient for anything close to anonymity, and so is everything else. But it does make the tracking harder and it does move you ever so slightly to the tail of every distribution that matters for fingerprinting.

One step in avoiding being tracked is to not log in and use RSS to follow your fav channels.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#829

Post by timbit42 » Thu, May 11, 2023, 2:04 PM UTC

dmbche wrote: post #192

Kinda off topic - I'm not a dev at all, I'm wondering how inefficient it would be for creators to self host their videos? How necessary are the youtube servers? Other than that I see that the algorithm has some value in showing you things you wouldn't otherwise...but I'm not sure that's actually wanted or needed. How impossible would it be to have an internet without centralized video hosting?

Try Odysee.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#830

Post by bacchusracine » Thu, May 11, 2023, 2:08 PM UTC

Supermancho wrote: post #403

makeitdouble wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay People don't want to pay for half-baked products: - Workspace accounts don't work - Even with standard accounts, it won't work on many devices (eg. TV apps), so you still get ads even as you paid - As Google regularly kills people's account, it also means most of us have multiple Youtube accounts that…

> People don't want to pay for half-baked products: This is disingenuous, to be blunt. People do not block youtube ads because workspace accounts don't work or because Google kills off niche products or that people lose youtube accounts when switching devices. Switching profiles is already considered an inconvenience, due to the way the algorithms tailor so well, regardless of how often you may engage in it.

>People do not block youtube ads because workspace accounts don't work

Ohh me! Me! I do!

I was one of those people stupid enough to go along with Google Plus when it was still a thing. I had no problem with my account for that but didn't want my real name associated with my YouTube browsing habits. So I used the option that allowed me to keep my username in YouTube. Fast forward a few years and Google Plus goes away and somehow my YouTube account is some kind of brand account and Google needs me to verify that I am of age somehow. (As if they don't have this information already) But no matter what I do now somehow I need my administrator's account to approve my ability to watch YouTube uncensored.

So to make a long story short, after trying things constantly and getting no where I created an account for just YouTube videos and spam emails. I have absolutely no interest in giving Google any more than I absolutely have to in order to keep watching and will never give them money for YouTube. The whole thing is broken with no way to loop in an actual human being. Hell I even had people blaming me saying it was my own fault for using G+ (as if it was truly optional at the point this happened.)